The All-Inclusive Mitzvah of Love & Unity

Every week on Erev Shabbos I have the great merit of taking my Rav to shul. He can’t go up the hill. Reb Moshe Kramer, a great tzaddik. This week when I opened the door to my car for him, he opened my mind to this great mitzvah of v’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha, love your brother like yourself. That’s what I want to share with you right now.

Among the many things that we talked about on that short drive to shul which Gd willing I hope to go deeper into in the weeks to come because this mitzvah is a portal, a door into a very, very lofty concept. This one mitzvah is allinclusive. The word, klal gadol.

What’s the word kol? Means all. Klal is allinclusive. It incorporates everything. It unifies everything. It sums up the whole entire Torah in one mitzvah. What’s so deep about it? What’s so important about it? What’s it have to do with this series that we’re in, called The Wisdom of Unity?

The first thing that Reb Moshe said, was that Rashi rarely quotes the name of the ta’anah that he is bringing. Here he mentions Rebbe Akiva. Why? It’s a hint to the period of time of Sefiras Omer. A period of mourning where we mourn the 24,000 students that passed away suddenly in this time. What was the reason? They didn’t honor one another. What does that mean? That even though they were learning Torah on a high level, each man was for himself, unable to see the viewpoint of the other.

Reb Moshe quoted from the second chapter of Pirkei Avos. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said, even if you’ve learned a lot of Torah, “al tachsi tova l’atzmecha,” don’t hold it for yourself. Don’t think it’s your Torah. Torah is the unifying force in the world. Torah is the good. Don’t keep it for yourself.

This is exactly what the Sfas Emes says about this mitzvah, is that, whether it’s Torah or mitzvahs, whatever we do it’s all b’sheim kol Yisrael, in the name of all the Jewish people. The destruction of the Holy Temple was because of baseless hatred, the inability to see the viewpoint of the other person. So too, tzaddikim tell us that we’re in exile today, for the same reason. We want to turn this around. We want the Beis Hamikdash, and it’s through this amazing mitzvah.

Let’s return to the masterpiece of Rebbe Nosson, The Laws of Loans and Interest, number five, and see what he has to say about v’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha. Teaches Rebbe Nosson, the power of the yetzer hara comes from multiplicity. Before there was a world, everything was one. In that oneness everything was good, everything was holy. After creation, even though everything was pristine, there was a foothold for falseness, strife, and most important, free choice. The world is a playing field for man to exercise his free will, and only man has free will.

As we said last week, an angel is very simple, very focused on doing the will of Hashem. On the other hand, an animal, he’s lacking da’as. He’s programmed to survive and will push over anything in his way. Free will is the greatest wonder of creation and all strife begins with multiplicity. As the verse says, Hashem made man straight and they, plural, they chose complication when they ate of the tree of knowledge, of good and evil. All of the multiplicities reflected in the infinite permutations, even in the weather, cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night. As brought down in the holy works of the Eitz Chaim, that no day is similar to another. It’s from here that all of the infinite permutations of what happens to a person stems from, and why each person is different than his friend.

The essential choice of each and every person is to focus his da’as on a daily basis, even every hour, and even every second, to believe in truth that everything is for his benefit. Everything that happens to him is a hint from Hashem to get him to turn around in truth. When a person focuses his consciousness and believes that it’s all from Hashem to connect him and bring him close whether it’s good or bad, in doing so, he nullifies the grip of the side of darkness that is associated with the multiplicity. For that person is kollel, incorporating all of the multiplicity back to its source, to Hashem, who’s the ultimate unity, one.

Listen to these words. If every single person would behave this way, to connect it all back to the one, certainly, the world would be in a state of love, peace, and unity and the whole world will be rectified in perfection, tikkun ha’olam. For this is more dear than anything in the world. This is the gevaldik mitzvah of v’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha, love your brother like yourself.

Said Rebbe Akiva, this is a great foundation idea. This is an allinclusive mitzvah. In truth, even though, every single person is totally different than his friend, nevertheless, each and every person has to love his friend like his own soul and to know that everything stems from oneness, unity. Hashem created every single person different than his friend, specifically, in order that every single person with his vantage point would come together in unity with his friend. Then people wouldn’t come to jealousy, hatred, and strife because of their different viewpoints, but rather love one another and perform the Torah mitzvahs together in unity.

This is the greatest delight of Hashem in the world. This is the beauty of the multiplicity. This is the purpose of creation. This is the mitzvah of loving your brother like yourself.